i) Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a line image sensor in which light emitted by an LED (light-emitting diode) array is reflected by the surface of a manuscript and the reflected light is concentrated by a condenser lens and is then detected by a light detector element array, and to a facsimile including the line image sensor.
ii) Description of the Related Arts:
In a conventional line image sensor, light emitted by an LED array composed of a plurality of light emitter elements such as LEDs particularly arranged is irradiated to the predetermined range of a manuscript and the light reflected by the manuscript is concentrated by a condenser lens and is then detected by a light detector element array composed of a plurality of light detector elements particularly arranged. Hence, the light detector element array reads image data of the manuscript to output electric signals as the image data. By the reading of each line in succession, the image data of the entire manuscript are read into the line image sensor. Such a line image sensor is frequently used for an image reading part of an image processing apparatus such as a facsimile machine or the like.
In FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional line image sensor. As shown in FIG. 1, in the line image sensor, a transparent glass plate 13 for supporting a manuscript is mounted on the top of a container chamber 12 of a case body 11. Within the case body 11, a reflection case 14, an LED array 15 with light emitting elements 15a, mounted to the reflection case 14, a condenser lens 16 such as a selfoc lens mounted to an internal wall of the container chamber 12, and a light detector element array 17 are arranged.
When the light emitting elements 15a of the LED array 15 generate the light, the light is reflected by a transparent resin film such as a silicon resin film of the reflection case 14 and is irradiated to the transparent glass plate 13. The manuscript is placed on the transparent glass plate 13, and the light is reflected by the manuscript supported on the transparent glass plate 13. Then, the reflected light is concentrated by the condenser lens 16, and concentrated light is detected by the light detector element array 17.
In the conventional line image sensor, the reflection case 14 and the LED array 15 are separately formed from each other. Hence, when the line image sensor is constructed, the reflection case 14 and the LED array 15 must be integrally assembled. In this assembling work, some processing is required to the LED array 15 side. Next, the LED array 15 providing with the reflection case 14 is secured to a mounting surface of the case body 11 by using a double-coated adhesive tape 18. The condenser lens 16 is fixed to the internal surface of the container chamber 12 by using a screw 19 while the condenser lens 16 is pressed to the internal surface of the container chamber 12. Thus, in addition to the assembling work of the reflection case 14 and the LED array 15, the LED array 15 must be mounted to the case body 11 by using the double-coated adhesive tape 18 and further the condenser lens 16 must be fixed to the container chamber 12 by using the screw 19. Hence, in the construction of the line image sensor, there are many parts and many assembly steps and thus the cost of the product is largely increased.